Three years ago I tried Gua Sha for the first time. Can’t lie to you. I was extremely sceptical of this. Thought it’s some new-age fad that doesn’t make much of a difference.
But I’m a curious guy. I try weird things. So I went.
The therapist was a Chinese trained old woman from the Ukraine. She had this calmness mixed with charisma about her. Like it was obvious to her this works well.
But how does it even work?
What is Gua Sha?
It’s a traditional East Asian technique where a smooth-edged tool (stone) is used to scrape the skin.
Like a massage with a dull stone. It’s commonly used on the body to address various health issues.
And it’s not a lot of pressure. It’s rather soft.
A single movement doesn’t hurt, but then… ok I’ll get to that.
Main Benefits
When searching for information on the technique, you can easily iind that it can have a lot of different benefits. Let’s list them out first, and then I’ll tell you what happened in my case. As I still can’t believe how profound of an impact this had on me.
Studies show it can boost blood flow, potentially aiding tissue health. Which is to be expected as it is a form of a massage.
It helps with improving circulation. That’s good!
They say it also reduces chronic pain, like neck and back pain, with some studies showing significant short-term relief.
Gua sha can relax muscles and improve joint movement, helping with tightness and mobility. Good for people spending a lot of time sitting.
There’s also some studies saying it reduces inflammation and helps with lymphatic drainage.
I read about all these things in disbelief and obviously, being confrontational I kind of joked around a little with the lady. She said it totally works, and the main thing it does is removing toxins.
Later I learned that Sha is literally the toxicity showing on the skin. The bruises.
Gua is to scrape or rub. The naming is pretty literal.
My back at the end of the first session.
My first session
The session started sitting down. She scraped the top of my head, mostly on the right side where I do have less bloodflow and slightly less hair. The rubbing was soft and felt light at first. But then I noticed, that it is starting to progressively hurt.
All that without her increasing the pressure. She was gently scrubbing but after a while the pain became really strong. I clenched my jaw and endured.
Welcoming the pain
The lying down part started with the back. And just like with the head, it started off soft and then became progressively more painful. But I noticed something. The pain was only growing in specific places.
Some areas of my back didn’t end up painful at all, no matter how long she worked on them.
The whole session took almost 90 minutes. I was shocked to see how bruised my back was in the nearby mirror.
But that quickly faded away, as I noticed something else.
I felt great!
Initial benefits
The first thing I noticed is that all the tightness and soreness was gone. At that time I used to drive a lot and my right hip was especially tight. It often hurt.
After just 90 minutes that was completely gone.
Even though it had gotten quite painful near the end, when I stood up all pain was gone.
Brainfog lifted too and that stayed with me for another two days. I felt like I was constantly on caffeine, even without any. Overall the power, energy and vitality easily aged me back ten years.
I remember myself saying that I felt that good at 31 years old. Like instant -10 years.
Continued treatment
The youthful effects lasted for around three to four days. Then they faded a little. I went for another session.
It was exactly the same technique and protocol. It did hurt a lot less this time though. And the bruises on my back were much, much smaller.
I continued with the treatment for four more sessions. After the last one there were no bruises anymore. I felt great for months.
Toxicity
We live in a toxic world. The toxins both biological and psychological get back in eventually. After eight months I went for another go. The bruises were back, but much, much smaller than on the first day.
My routine
I currently do two Gua Sha sessions per year. Roughly every six months.
It’s a part of my current detox routine.
Can I recommend it?
Not to everyone.
If you have easily irritable skin it may actually be counterproductive. Or hurt you.
My advice would be to find someone really knowledgeable about Gua Sha, likely older and wiser. And then ask them to check whether your skin reacts the right way.
Most regular medicine doctors don’t believe in it, as there’s not much money to be made, but in my case it did wonders.
Don’t treat what I wrote here as medical advice though. Everyone’s different. This is a part of my routine and I look forward to the sessions.
I just feel great afterwards.
